Damian Lillard eviscerates the 76ers on a big day for Philly sports
Behind a massive 43-point outing from Damian Lillard, the Giannis-less Bucks took out the healthy Sixers in a Sunday matinee at Fiserv Forum by a 135-125 final, their seventh straight win over Philly. Though Gary Trent Jr. (season-high 23 points) was the only other Buck above 18 points, all seven of his makes came from downtown as he and Dame became the first teammates in franchise history to each hit at least seven threes in the same game. Tyrese Maxey was the high man for the Sixers with 39. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.
What Did We Learn?
As anyone who has watched the team lately knows, rebounding has been a serious problem of late Milwaukee. With Giannis out and Joel Embiid healthy, you might have though recent history would repeat itself. However, not only did the Bucks win the battler on the glass, they also notched a season-high 19 offensive rebounds. Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez each had seven of those as they consistently outmuscled Philly’s smaller big men like Justin Edwards and Guerschon Yabusele.
So what changed besides Portis’ return? This team is literally last in the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage, and they lacked the league’s fifth-leading rebounder. Was this a point of emphasis in the walkthrough this morning? Here’s what head coach Doc Rivers said:
We talked about it, so I will say that. With Giannis out, it doesn’t make as much sense, but when Giannis comes back and we have those three bigs in, we will have a chance because Kuzma and Giannis have enough speed to be an offensive rebounder and get back.
He also gave credit to Portis (12 rebounds), Kyle Kuzma (eight), and the Bucks’ guards (Dame had seven, Trent had six) for their efforts on the boards:
Without Giannis, who’s our best rebounder, we take a big hit there. Bobby’s been unbelievable. Kuz helps in that area as well. But we really focus on getting our guards in there as well, so I thought our guards did a good job tonight.
Three Times
Dame Time, all the time!
No doubt about it, this is exactly what you want to see from your All-Star point guard when your All-Star big man is on the shelf. Of course, he was dialed in with 14/27 shooting and 8/15 from beyond the arc, but what was most encouraging was how he struggled much less with traps than he has at points this season. Doc was pleased:
I told Dame that he needs to be an aggressive scorer and an aggressive playmaker, and that’s a hard thing to do. And I thought he did that tonight. I thought his downhill attacks to create buckets were great, and that led him to his shooting.
Postgame, Dame relayed to us that this is what Doc told him right before tip, and with his nine quick points in the opening minutes, that short notice worked well.
Trent Time?
Not to be too outdone by his former Blazer teammate, Gary Trent hit 7/15 from deep and is shooting 53.6% on 28 attempts over the last three contests. In the first and early fourth, he went on three-point mini-binges that broke the Sixers’ backs a few times, also adding a buzzer-beater before halftime. He’s up to 43.0% on 5.5 attempts per game from distance. Defensively, I thought he was much better on Maxey than Andre Jackson Jr., who played just three second-half minutes. GTJ was able to deny Maxey the ball a fair bit in the third as the Bucks established firm control of the game, as the Sixer star took just two shots while playing all 12 minutes.
Tyrese Time…
Thanks in part to Trent, Maxey had just three second-half points until the last six minutes when he scored 10 on 4/4 shooting, making the score look more respectable and forcing some timeouts from a frustrated Doc. Since the start of last season, Maxey has been a particularly prickly thorn in the Bucks’ side, averaging 31.0 PPG and hitting threes at a 40.6% clip. AJax got the assignment early, but as we’ve seen often, he isn’t a good matchup on smaller, quick guards with gaudy scoring numbers. Part of why I’d like to have seen the Bucks acquire someone like Davion Mitchell at the deadline last week.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- This was the final NBA game behind the mic for Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster Hubie Brown. The 91-year-old and two-time NBA Coach of the Year ends his career as a broadcaster in the city where he began it as an assistant on Larry Costello’s staff as a Bucks assistant in 1972. The Bucks honored him with a video tribute after the first media timeout.
- If you missed it, Giannis was not only ruled out for this game yesterday, but ESPN’s Shams Charania reported before the game that he would miss the remaining games before the All-Star break and not partake in that exhibition.
- Kuzma made his first start as a Buck, taking Portis’ place in the starting five. Though he scored just four points after the first quarter, he was quite good on the glass and dished out five assists on his way to a 13/8/5 afternoon. I thought he also put in some good shifts defensively when he switched onto Embiid. Afterward, Doc said that while Kuz is “easy to fit in,” the coach saw a lot of action developing that made him say he wished Kuz knew the play.
- Embiid, George, and Maxey all appeared (and started) this game for Philly. That’s only the 13th time this has occurred since PG came to the City of Brotherly Love last offseason.
- Since returning from a six-game absence due to his grandmother’s death, Portis has had three consecutive double-doubles with 18 and 12 today.
- This was the first game in uniform for new Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr., and while both he and new center Jericho Sims didn’t get off the bench today, Doc said they’d “both be playing in the near future, maybe tomorrow.”
- There was a possession midway through in the second quarter where Milwaukee got five offensive rebounds but couldn’t make a shot. One of them was about as wide open a corner three as GTJ will ever see.
- 24 three-point makes was also a season-high. The Bucks took a whopping 55 attempts this afternoon, one short of another season-high.
- Milwaukee came out moving the ball very well, with 10 assists on their first 15 buckets. They ended with 28 dimes. Doc mentioned that in Friday’s loss, the Bucks began their game with multiple possessions featuring zero passes, but in the second quarter, that jumped to four or five. He said he showed the team the plays with the most passes prior to the game, calling it a “subliminal message that wasn’t that subliminal.”
- Transition was yet again an issue defensively for Milwaukee, as Philly outscored them 26-7 on the break.
- Doc was a little “agitated” (his words) at needing to play Dame for 44 minutes on the front end of a back-to-back because of how they couldn’t put the Sixers away in the closing minutes, as they closed it to around 10 multiple times.
- During the game today, ABC’s Lisa Salters reported that Embiid said he may require another knee surgery this offseason and a “long recovery period.”
Up Next
The Bucks are back in action tomorrow evening, finishing off their back-to-back with the Golden State Warriors. You can catch the action at 7 p.m. Central on ESPN, FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin, or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.
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